Fade to black: EP 5 - Lantis
by maxrpg
Summary: SG-1 know that the Alterans came to this galaxy in a ship, a ship that has not been seen or heard of in all of their time venturing through the Stargate. Until now.
1. Calius

It's the start of a new day at the SGC and everyone is going about their business, personnel on the surface at the the main gates are checking paperwork and searching trucks as they arrive to deliver supplies to the base, maintenance staff are cleaning the halls and offices, kitchen staff are preparing meals to be distributed throughout the day, technicians are making sure everything on base is running smoothly and SG-Teams are once again preparing for their next mission through the gate.

Up in the security room, Barry and Gordon have got the day shift monitoring the many cameras on base to ensure everyone is safe and the base is secure, they're both sat in comfortable leather chairs at the security console watching the screens in front of them.

Barry leans back and stretches out his arms with a yawn.

"Rough night huh?" says Gordon.

"Oh you wouldn't believe it mate, because the Mrs is away visiting her mother, I had to take the kids to some prearrange concert, four hours it went on for." says Barry.

"Four hours?. Haha." says Gordon, "Rather you than me." he adds.

"The music was so loud we could have just stayed at home, we could've probably heard it from her house, and the flashing lights were crazy, I'm still seeing spots now." says Barry, "I tell ya, I'm really starting to feel my age." he adds.

Gordon laughs and pats him on the shoulder as he stands up, "You want some coffee?" he asks, heading for the coffee pot behind them.

Barry turns and stretches, "No thanks." he says, then as he turns back to face the screens he sees something strange walking down the hall, he looks closer and squints his eyes, then closes them and shakes his head thinking he's halucinating, when he opens his eyes again he doesn't see it anymore, "Erm, on second thoughts I think I will have some of the coffee...make it a strong one." he says.

* * *

General O'Neill and most of SG-1 are in the briefing room waiting for Daniel to arrive, apparently he's made a discovery, Carter is explaining her progress on the next generation of Naquadah generators.

"...so yes I think we've made amazing progress, the power output could potentially be more than 500% greater than our current models." says Carter.

"500% you say?" says O'Neill.

"Yes Sir. We should be ready to test it soon." says Carter.

O'Neill doesn't have a clue about most of what she's been saying for the last 20 minutes, "Good news, keep me posted." he says.

"Yes Sir." says Carter.

Alisana comes in to the briefing room, as bubbly and bouncy as ever, "Morning." she says joyfully as she takes her seat at the table.

Everyone stopped talking as they saw her enter the room, they stare at her with strange looks on their faces, "Did I miss anything?" says Alisana, looking around at them all.

"Carter was just explaining about Naquadah generators." says O'Neill, he speaks slowly while still staring at Alisana, not quite sure what he's seeing.

"Oh, did you get it working yet?" asks Alisana, with interest.

Carter shakes her head slowly, "Not yet." she says.

The room is silent for a few moments, "So listen..here's a question for ya." says O'Neill, "...What are you wearing?" he asks.

"Oh, they call it a onesie." replies Alisana, with a smile on her face, she's wearing a bright pink onesie with round ears on it's hood, it's in the style of a mouse, "Do you like it?" she asks.

"A what?" asks O'Neill.

"A onesie." says Teal'c.

O'Neill looks at Teal'c and then at Alisana, "I see. Why are you wearing it?" he asks.

"Its comfortable, and its cold in this place." replies Alisana.

"They're considerably warm." says Teal'c, turning his head and smiling.

Everyone turns and looks at Teal'c, O'Neill does a double take looking at Teal'c then leans forward with his hands clasped on the table, "They're considerably warm?" asks O'Neill, "And you know this...how?" he adds.

Alisana turns in her seat, "Do you have one too?" she asks, looking at Teal'c.

Teal'c was about to reply when he notices everyone staring at him, he turns his head away, looking a tiny bit embarrassed and remains silent.

"I love it. Where can I get one?" says Vala.

At this point Daniel walks in to the room, hes holding a book and has his head down looking at it, "Hi guys, sorry I was just making sure I had everything." he says as he makes his way to the other end of the room towards a projection screen.

"I have some more in my room, I'll get you one later." whispers Alisana to Vala.

"So err..OK." says Daniel, placing the open book down on the table and stepping back holding the projector remote, "The reason I asked you all to be here today is because I think I've..." he says, he stops talking when he sees Alisana.

"It's a onesie." says O'Neill.

"Oh." says Daniel, he shakes his head trying to get back his thoughts, "As I was saying I asked you all here today because I think I've found something very important." he says.

"How important?" asks Vala.

"Very." says Daniel, he then turns off the lights and displays an image on the projection screen, it's an image of a stone slab with Ancient text on it.

Daniel explains...

"We all know the story of the Ancients, who they are and where they came from. We don't know exactly when, but 10's if not 100's of millions of years ago due to the war with the Ori they left their home galaxy in search of a new home, after thousands of years travelling through space they eventually ended up here in the Milky Way, or Avalon as the Ancients called it.

When they arrived here they settled on the planet we now know as Dakara, from there they set out and explored the galaxy and after meeting the various races that inhabited the galaxy they formed an alliance with them, they lived peacefully together until the unfortunate events surrounding the disappearance of the Novum and Alisana at the hands of the Verdain.

Obviously as we know, the alliance continued but all the races were a bit withdrawn after that. The Ancients, for reasons I'm not quite sure about just yet, left Dakara and resettled on Terra...here on Earth. Probably due to their growing population, they eventually built themselves a city, Atlantis, and shortly after that they were infected with the Ori plague and they left Earth, taking Atlantis with them to the Pegasus galaxy...and we all know the rest."

"Fascinating." says O'Neill, "But like you said when you first starting talking...we already know this story." he adds.

"I know." replies Daniel.

O'Neill waves his hands slightly in a confused manner, "So what's so important?" he asks.

Daniel steps forward, "I found this when..." he says as he pick up the book he left on the table, he pauses talking again when he hears a strange sound, once again everyone turns and stares at Alisana.

While Daniel was telling the story, Alisana quietly got up from her seat and went over to the small refreshment table, she picked up a box of donuts and took it back with her to the table, the strange sound everyone hears is Alisana sucking the jelly out of a donut.

Alisana finishes extracting the jelly and moves the donut away from her mouth and starts licking the sticky tips of her fingers, she looks up and sees everyone staring at her again in silence, she wipes the powdered sugar off her face, "Oh I'm sorry did you want one?" she asks, holding out the open box of donuts.

"Yeah" says O'Neill, as his strange expression changes to one of pleasure, he reaches out and happily grabs a donut.

"I'll take one of those." says Carter.

"Do you have chocolate frosting?" asks Teal'c, leaning over and peering in to the box.

"Sure" says Alisana, passing him the chocolate frosted donut.

Daniel lowers his head in disbelief, "Seriously?" he says, sounding a little bit frustrated.

"Sorry, Daniel. Go ahead." says O'Neill, cramming the cream filled donut in to his mouth.

"You're sure...you don't want a coffee to go with that?...anyone need a bathroom break or anything?." says Daniel, sarcastically, "Alright then, as I was saying." he adds.

Daniel continues...

"During the war with the Verdain, Alisana took us to the Yaculum, while we were there we found a room filled with books, scrolls and stone tables, we didn't have much time to look at them but on my way out this book caught my eye and I brought it back with me.

The book is journal kept by an Alteran called Calius, he was the captain of a ship. I've gone through the whole thing and it's basically a daily account of the Alterans journey to the Milky Way from their home galaxy."

"...and?" says O'Neill.

"Well as I explained, the Ancients came here from their home galaxy in a ship, through all our years of travelling to other planets and everything we've found, we haven't seen or found any reference to that ship...until now." says Daniel.

"Lantis." says Alisana.

"What?" asks Carter.

"The name of the ship, it was called the Lantis." replies Alisana.

Daniel looks at her, "Yes...wait...you...you know about this ship?" he asks.

"Yes." says Alisana.

"Well why didn't you say anything?" asks Daniel, "You didn't ask." she replies.

"I've never seen it, I was told about it when I was little." says Alisana.

"Do you know where it is?" asks Mitchell.

Alisana shakes her head, "No" she says.

"It's right here." says Daniel, pointing his fingers down.

"On the floor?" asks O'Neill.

"No, here...here on Earth." says Daniel.

"Well where is it?" asks an excited O'Neill.

Daniel lowers his head for a moment, "I have no idea. Calius's final entry says that it was moved to Terra, so I'm pretty sure it's still here." he says, he opens the book and turns it around so they all can see, "I found this on the back page, I believe they're instructions on how to find or access the ship...but it doesn't make sense yet...its just a bunch of drawings and random numbers." he adds.

"Let me see." says Carter, leaning across the table, Daniel passes her the book.

Carter examines the back page, "These are frequencies." she says with confidence.

"Frequencies, are you sure?" asks Daniel.

"Positive." says Carter, "Look here, these drawings look like wavebands or sound waves and the numbers they must represent a specific frequency." she adds.

"For what, a radio?" asks Vala.

"A tracker maybe." says Alisana.

"Possibly." says Carter, "Sir, I'd like to run these through my computer and see what I can come up with." she says.

"Go" says O'Neill.

Alisana gets up, looking excited and follows Carter out, Daniel pursues.

"An Ancient ship right under our noses." says Mitchell, "Do you think they'll find it?" he asks.

"Knowing Carter, I think she just might." replies O'Neill with a smile, everyone is excited about the prospect of getting their hands on an Ancient ship.


	2. Lullaby

Carter, Daniel and Alisana have been in Carter's lab trying to figure out what the drawings and numbers mean in Calius' journal, scanning and inputting the information in to the mainframe they've discovered that it is both a frequency and a signal, Carter believes that they must transmit the signal on the specific frequency.

The frequency however is quite complex, they attempted to produce and broadcast the signal using Earth based equipment but it failed, with all the signals flowing around the world from radios, TVs and wireless, there would probably be too much interference anyway, so they concluded that they would require more powerful equipment and they've enlisted to the help of the Daedalus which is now in orbit and they're currently finishing up making the necessary modifications to it's transmitters.

SG-1 are on the bridge of the Daedalus.

"How long is this going to take?. We've been here for hours." says Mitchell.

Carter is sitting at a bridge console inputting data, "Nearly got it." she replies.

"So how have you been?" says O'Neill, sitting on the floor next to Colonel Caldwell's chair.

"Not bad Sir, you?" replies Caldwell.

"Oh I can't complain." says O'Neill, "Well I could...but...you know." he adds.

"Yes Sir." says Caldwell, with a slight grin.

"Carter, do the words, Frozen and Ass mean anything to you?" shouts O'Neill.

Carter smiles, "I'm finished Sir." she says.

"Thank God." says O'Neill, who groans a little as he uses the headrest of Caldwell's chair to pull himself up, "You should get some underfloor heating put in here." he says to Caldwell.

"I'll put in a request next time we're at the alpha site, Sir." replies Caldwell.

The necessary modifications have been made to the Daedalus' transmitter array and Carter has finished setting up the system and inputting the frequency and signal data, "We're ready to start transmitting." says Carter.

"Go ahead." says O'Neill.

"Sending the signal...now." says Carter, activating the transmitter.

The signal can be heard through the Daedalus coms, its a series of low and high pitch beeps of various lengths, Carter is monitoring the transmitter and looking for any activity on the receivers and scanners, the rest of SG-1 are standing near the bridge viewing window looking out at Earth, nothing appears to be happening.

Caldwell leans over in his chair, "What exactly are we looking for?" he asks.

"I have no idea." says Carter.

Daniel walks back towards Carter, "Anything?" he asks.

Carter shakes her head, "Nothing." she says, "The signal needs to break through a lot of interference, maybe we need to get closer." she adds.

"Sgt move us in as close as you can." orders Caldwell to a Sgt at the flight controls, "Yes Sir." replies the Sgt.

* * *

The Daedalus has moved towards Earth as close as possible but after several minutes they still haven't received or detected anything out of the ordinary.

"I'm sorry Daniel, still nothing." says Carter, a little disappointed.

O'Neill and others start walking back away from the window, "Well we gave it a shot." says O'Neill.

"Maybe the Ancients did move it." says Vala, "Yeah a lot would have happened since that Calius guy wrote that journal." says Mitchell.

"Alright, lets get back to the SGC." says O'Neill, "Caldwell can you beam us down." he adds.

"Are we giving up?" asks Carter.

O'Neill briefly points at the window, "There's nothing there, Carter. When we get back to the SGC you can go through the journal again...maybe we missed something." he says.

Daniel walks back towards the window and looks out, "I was so sure it was here." he says.

"Well we know it's out there somewhere, we'll keep looking." says Mitchell, putting his hand on Daniel's shoulder.

"OK, come on guys." says O'Neill.

"No wait." says Alisana, standing next to Carter and leaning on the console, "Sam, can you reverse the signal?" she asks.

"Why?" replies Carter.

"Just play it in reverse." says Alisana.

Carter reverses the signal, "Okay" she says, "Doesn't sound much different." she adds.

"Yes it does, slow it down a little." replies Alisana.

"Alisana, what are you.." says O'Neill, who's interrupted by Alisana, "Shush" she says.

"A little more." says Alisana, Carter continues to gradually slow down the signal being played in reverse and it starts to sound familiar to Alisana.

"Stop, stop. That's it." says Alisana.

Daniel approaches, "That's...what?" he asks.

"When I was little my parents would put me to bed and tell me the story of the people who came here from a far away land riding a silver star, the Lantis. After telling me the story they would hum a soothing tune to help me fall asleep...the is the tune." says Alisana, with a smile.

Carter turns and looks at O'Neill, they don't say anything, but in all their years of working together they've got to know each other so well that they don't need too, O'Neill knows exactly what she's thinking and he gives her a nod.

"Transmitting the signal now." says Carter, as she faces the console.

* * *

Less than a minute after the signal is rebroadcast, Daedalus' scanners pick something up on sensors, which start beeping.

"I don't believe it." says Carter, looking at her screen, "It worked." she adds.

"Find something?" asks O'Neill.

Carter brings up a live image of the area where the scanners are indicating, "There's definitely something there." she says, she activates thermal imaging and they see a heat signature gradually getting hotter and coming from an object under the surface, not just the surface but under the ocean as well.

"Is that it?" asks O'Neill, "Where is that?" he asks.

"It's in the North Pacific. About 500 miles North East of Honolulu." replies Carter, "That has to be it, whatever that is it wasn't there a few moments ago" she adds.

"What's it doing under there?" asks Mitchell.

"Well that's Hawaii, that area was highly volcanic about 30 million years ago, there could have been an island there when the Ancients came here and it could have sank, broken up and it's highly possible that the ship was covered in tonnes of rock and lava flows due to volcanic eruptions." says Carter.

"So...how do we get down there?" asks O'Neill.

"We beam down." says Daniel.

Caldwell stands up and walks over, "Wait a second, that things under hundreds of feet of ocean and rock, we can't scan its interior and we certainly can't see it, where exactly am I suppose to beam you too?." he says.

"Well we at least know the shape of it...from above." says Alisana, "Who's up for a gamble?" she adds.

"I'm up for it." says Carter.

"Up for what?" asks a confused O'Neill.

"Sir, based on the scan of the ship that we have, we could take a guess at the layout and try to beam on to the bridge." says Carter.

They spend a lot of time thinking about it and arguing about it, Carter thinks it will work and it's their only chance of getting on the ship, they could wait and bring in an underwater excavation team but judging by how deep the ship is it could take months or even years they reach it, beaming in is the only way.

* * *

Alisana and Carter have picked a part of the ship they believe to be the bridge, SG-1 are gathered near the window on the Daedalus' bridge, because the Lantis is so far underground their radios and locator beacons won't work, so they're taking along some booster rods to amplify their signal when they're ready to beam out, and they're also taking a Naquadah generator in case they need the power.

O'Neill turns to Carter, "You're sure about this?" he asks, a little nervous.

"Oh absolutely Sir. Well...70% sure." replies Carter.

"Only 70%?" asks O'Neill.

"Well there is a slight chance that we could...end up beaming in to a solid wall." says Carter.

"Come on lets go already." says Alisana with excitement, bashing O'Neill on the arm.

"Keep your pants on. Caldwell...hopefully we'll see you soon." says O'Neill.

"Good luck all of you, we'll be monitoring." replies Caldwell, he then turns his head and gives the signal to beam SG-1 down to the ship.

* * *

SG-1 appear at the coordinates they chose, they all fall unexpectedly about 5 feet to the ground and land pretty hard, they had the wind knocked out of them and a few bumps on their arms and legs but nothing serious, "Ooaar, great job on the coordinates Carter." says O'Neill.

"Thanks." replies Carter.

"I was kidding." says O'Neill.

"I know Sir." replies Carter, "At least we didn't end up inside a wall." she adds.

"Yeah..there's that." says O'Neill, "Where are we." he says.

They're standing in darkness, as they turn on their torches they see metallic walls, it's narrow so it must be a corridor and not the bridge as they were expecting, as they shine their light around they can see that one side of the corridor is completely blocked off by steal beams and piles of rubble, that part of the ceiling must have collapsed due to the weight of the surface and ocean above.

"Well we're not going that way." says Mitchell.

"This way appears to be clear." says Teal'c, shining his torch down the other end of the corridor.

O'Neill gets on the radio, "Daedalus this is O'Neill, come in." he says, "Caldwell, do you read?" he says.

"Its not going to work Sir, we're too far underground." says Carter

"Right." says O'Neill, he looks around, "So where to?" he asks.

"We should try and find the main systems, see if we can get some power." says Carter.

"Well lets do that. Mitchell, Teal'c take point, the rest of you stay behind us." says O'Neill.

So they all head off slowly walking down the corridor with only the light from their torches to see where they're going, apart from the collapsed ceiling behind them, the ship so far looks in great condition, shiny clean walls, floors and ceiling, they can see light panels on the walls above them but they're no use until they have power.


	3. Power

SG-1 have been walking the corridors of the Lantis for some time, they passed a number of rooms that upon investigation turned out to be crew quarters and they still haven't located the power room or the bridge.

"Hey Sam, will this be of any use?" says Daniel, standing several feet away facing and shining his torch on to the wall.

Carter goes over, "Could be...it's some type of display panel but doesn't have any power." she says, "Teal'c let me have the Naquadah generator." she adds.

"There's a ladder here, looks like there's floors above and below us." says O'Neill, standing a few feet ahead of them.

Carter removes a small panel on the wall to the side of the display, behind it are a small group of crystals, after inspecting the crystals she uses a cable and attaches the Naquadah generator to one of them which activates and lights up the display, it flickers a few times before stabilizing.

"Got it." says Carter, and everyone gathers around to look.

"Is that a layout of the ship?" asks Daniel.

"Yep, that's exactly what it is." replies Carter.

The display is showing a skeletal layout of the level they're currently on, it has several buttons to the side of the map that allow Carter to flick through the other levels.

"Okay, can anyone see any numbers or markers around here?" asks Carter.

"Yes I saw one..." says Vala, she turns around and takes a few steps shining her light on the wall, "Here it is, but I have no idea what it is." she says.

Daniel goes over and takes a look, he hunches down close to it, "Erm...C7" he says.

"Okay. We're here.." says Carter, pointing at the display, she navigates through the different floor layouts, "We need to beeee...1 level down and here...this is the power room." she says.

"What about the bridge, where's that?." asks O'Neill.

"Errrm...2 levels above us." replies Carter, "But it's a heck of a walk Sir." she adds.

"Alright, I'll take Mitchell and Alisana and head to the bridge. The rest of you get to the power room and see what you can do to get the lights on." says O'Neill.

"Wait, why can't I go with them?" asks Alisana.

"Because if Carter manages to get the systems online, we're going to need you to help us get communications working so we can get in contact with the Daedalus." says O'Neill.

"Oh ok." says Alisana.

* * *

O'Neill waits for the others to safely climb down to the lower level and then he, Alisana and Mitchell head up 2 levels and make their way towards the bridge,

The others are walking through the corridors making their way to the power room, they're almost there when they hear a noise behind them and swing around with their torches.

"What was that?" says Vala.

Teal'c stares down the corridor for a few moments, "I do not know." he says.

"It was probably just the weight of the rocks above the ship making the hull creak." says Carter, "Don't be so jumpy." she says with a slight laugh, "Come on." she adds.

They walk a few more meters and come to a large double door, it's partly open with a gap of a few inches in between them.

Carter shines her torch through the gap and briefly looks inside, "This is it." she says, "We need to get this door open." she says.

"DanielJackson." says Teal'c, "Yep. Hold this." says Daniel, passing his torch to Vala and then going over to Teal'c and grabbing the other door, they use all their strength to pull the doors open as much as they can.

"That's as far as it's going to go." says Daniel, hunching down and panting from the exertion.

As they step inside the room they see a large console in front of them, around the sides of the room are 12 large triangular posts with access panels, stretching from floor to ceiling.

"OK, Teal'c, put the generator here please." says Carter, she opens panels on a few of the posts and believes she's found the power distribution system, the crystals appear to have been removed and just thrown around inside the panel, she gets to work, "This could take a while guys." she says.

"O'Neill, we have located the power room, but it may take some time to make repairs." says Teal'c over the radio.

"Great, keep us updated." replies O'Neill.

* * *

While Carter gets to work sorting out the ships power and the others walk around aimlessly, O'Neill, Mitchell and Alisana are 2 levels above them.

Alisana tightly zips up her jacket and rubs her arms feeling a little chilly, "I should have kept my Onesie on, it's colder down here than it is at the SGC." she says.

"I don't think a Onesie qualifies as a regulation uniform." says O'Neill.

"I thought she looked kind of cute actually." says Mitchell, having a laugh and joke.

"Cute?" says O'Neill with a light smile.

"For a mouse." replies Mitchell.

"Yeah yeah, OK, make fun all you want but its very comfortable and I like it." says Alisana.

"Where did you get it from anyway?" asks O'Neill.

"I bought it." replies Alisana.

"Bought it, with what?, you don't have any money." says O'Neill.

"I charged it to your discretionary account." says Alisana.

O'Neill stops walking, "You what?" he shouts, as Alisana and Mitchell continue walking forward.

"You said I could use it to get what I need." says Alisana.

"Yeah...essentials." says O'Neill, he starts walking again.

"Comfort is an essential." says Alisana, smiling.

"We're having a talk when we get back about what that word essential means." says O'Neill, "That's going to look great at the next budget meeting when the President is looking over my account." he moans, "How the hell am I going to explain a Onesie." he adds.

Mitchell reaches an open door, "Hey look at this." he says, walking in to the room.

In the middle of the room is a large table with what looks like scientific equipment on the top of it, a large sphere with windows around it is hanging on the back wall and thousands of small cylinders stick out from the side walls, they move to the back of the room and peer in to the sphere but don't see anything inside.

Alisana walks over to one of the walls and runs her fingers over the cylinders as she walks, she stops and takes one out, "It has red liquid inside." she says while twisting it around and shining her torch on to it.

"Looks like a vial." says O'Neill.

Mitchell also takes one out, "They're all filled with some type of liquid." he says.

Suddenly they hear something smash by the door near the opposite wall and turn to shine their torches, they see one of the vials smashed on the floor, then slowly from the front of the room, random vials start shooting out of both of the walls and hitting them, they run to the back of the room and duck down for cover as vial after vial smashes on the walls and their backs.

Moments later the lights blink on and the smashing stops, they slowly look back and stand up, the floor is covered with smashed glass and liquid.

"What the hell was that." says Mitchell.

"General, we got the power back online." says Carter over the radio, "Do you have lights?" she adds.

They stand looking around the room in confusion, O'Neill slowly reaches for his radio, "Yeah lights are on." he says.

"That's good Sir, are you on the bridge?" asks Carter.

"Not yet, if you're finished down there meet us up here." replies O'Neill.

"That was really weird." says Alisana.

"Yeah." says O'Neill, "Lets get out of here, get to the bridge." he says.

They cautiously walk over the broken glass and exit the room, "Wait." says O'Neill as he turns and pushes a button next to the door to close it, "OK lets go." he says, and they head off towards the bridge through the now brightly lit corridors.

* * *

In the power room, Carter is finishing up and replacing the panels.

"What's the plan now that we have power?" asks Daniel.

"We get to the bridge and see what condition the ship is in." says Carter, pushing the generator against the wall, "See what we can do to get it out of here." she says.

Daniel is standing at the console, "Can't you use this to do that?" he asks.

"No that's a monitoring station for the ships systems and power, it won't tell us anything useful." replies Carter.

"OK." says Daniel.

"Come on." says Carter, as they all turn round to face the door, they gasp and stop in their tracks.

"Vala" says Daniel, slowly.

Vala is standing by the door with her arms folded and facing in to the room, she smiles, "What?" she asks.

"Don't move." says Carter.

"Why not?" asks Vala, she turns around and quickly unfolds her arms and runs backwards.

Standing at the door to the power room, they see a small black alien, it looks like a modern Asgard and it's just standing there looking at them.

Teal'c slowly activates his radio, "O'Neill" he whispers.

"Yeah?" replies O'Neill.

"We require your assistance." says Teal'c.

"Our assistance...with what?" says O'Neill.

"We have company." replies Teal'c.

Mitchell, Alisana and O'Neill look at each other, "Company?" says Mitchell, they immediately turn around and run back, heading towards the power room, "On our way, Teal'c." replies O'Neill over the radio.


	4. Life Signs

As O'Neill, Mitchell and Alisana run back through the corridors, the others are still in the power room, standing still and in shock at what they see standing in the doorway, the alien is around 4 feet tall, has black skin, a thin skinny body and a large head with big eyes, it resembles the appearance of an Asgard.

Vala slightly leans over to Daniel, "Why is it just standing there staring at us?" she whispers.

"I don't know." replies Daniel.

"Shoo...go away." says Vala, flicking her hand.

"Vala!" says Daniel through his teeth.

"What?. It's freaking me out." she replies.

Daniel does his 'Vala you're so annoying look' then leans towards Carter, "Maybe we should try talking to it." he whispers.

Carter gently points towards the alien, "Knock yourself out." she says.

Daniel takes a breath and then steps forward a few feet, "Erm Hi...I'm Daniel...Daniel Jackson." he says.

The alien looks at him with curiosity but doesn't reply.

"Can you understand me?." asks Daniel, "Are you Asgard?" he asks.

He still gets no reply, Mitchell, O'Neill and Alisana come running around the corner of the corridor , they skid to a stop when they see the alien, the alien turns around when it hears them.

"Wooahw." says Mitchell, as he and O'Neill raise and aim their P90s.

"Don't don't don't...don't shoot." shouts Daniel lifting his arms.

"Where the heck did that come from." says O'Neill, looking in shock at the alien.

The alien just looks at them for a moment and then starts slowly walking towards them, O'Neill braces his P90, "Hey hey hold it." he shouts, the alien continues walking.

"General." says Mitchell, unsure what action to take.

"Stay right there." shouts O'Neill.

As the alien gets closer, O'Neill fires a warning shot in front of it near its feet, the alien stops walking and quickly looks at the floor where the bullet hit and then looks back up at O'Neill, it then turns and runs off down another corridor, Mitchell and O'Neill run forward and as they look down the adjoining corridor they don't see the alien.

"It's alright its gone." says O'Neill, as the others come out of the power room.

"I think you scared it off." says Daniel.

O'Neill looks at Alisana, "Any idea what that was?" he asks.

"No, I've never seen anything like that before." replies Alisana.

"OK...am I the only one who thinks that thing looked like an.." says Mitchell.

"Asgard." says Carter, finishing off his question, "It did look like one." she adds.

"Should we pursue it, O'Neill?" asks Teal'c.

O'Neill thinks for a moment, "No. We need to get to the bridge and contact the Daedalus." he says, "Come on. Watch your six." he adds.

* * *

SG-1 make it to the bridge of the ship and with power now restored, with a push of a button the doors open without problem and they go inside, the bridge room is circular, a captains chair sits in the middle of the room with another two seats with consoles sitting in front of it, to the left and right of the room are many consoles and displays running along the walls, there is a large dome shaped window at the front but its covered with a metal shield.

Carter sits at the left console at the front of the bridge, "Systems are coming back online Sir." she says, interacting with the console.

"Do we have communications?" asks O'Neill.

"Yes Sir." says Carter, "They're active now Sir." she adds.

O'Neill stands next to Carter looking at the console and a little confused, "Where's the microphone?" he asks.

Carter smiles, "You can use your radio Sir, I boosted the signal." she says.

"Oh" says O'Neill.

"Daedalus this is O'Neill, do you read?" says O'Neill over his radio.

"This is the Daedalus, good to hear from you General." says Caldwell, "We were getting a little worried about you. How is it going down there?" he adds.

"Well we're alive, Carter managed to get the power going, the ship appears to be in pretty good shape." says O'Neill, "Oh..and we encountered what we think is an Asgard." he says.

"Asgard?" says Caldwell.

"That's what I said...Asgard." replies O'Neill.

"Should I send a team down to assist?" asks Caldwell.

"Err...negative. We're fine for the time being, we just wanted to get communications online so we could let you know what's going on." says O'Neill, "Just keep the channel open and stay close, we'll be in touch." he adds.

"Copy that." says Caldwell.

* * *

While Carter gets to work trying to figure out how to salvage the Lantis, Alisana is checking the condition of the ship and its systems, Daniel and Vala are going through the database and logs, Teal'c and Mitchell are by the door, O'Neill has made himself at home in the captains chair.

Suddenly they hear a rumble and scratchy metal sounds, the lights flicker and the ship shakes briefly, it only lasts a few seconds and then stops.

O'Neill gets up from the chair, "Carter?" he says.

Carter is looking up at the ceiling and listening, "It was just a light tremor Sir, seems to have passed." she says.

"Should we be worried?" asks Daniel.

"We'll be fine in here." says Carter.

"I think I found the alien." says Alisana, standing at a console.

O'Neill, Vala and Daniel go over to her, "Where?" asks O'Neill.

Alisana managed to activate the ships internal sensors and apart from their own, she has picked up another life sign, "There it is." she says, pointing at the display, it's a layout of the level they're currently on and shows a round light indicating a life sign in one of the rooms.

"Where is that?" asks O'Neill.

"It's in that lab we were in earlier." replies Alisana.

"Alright, we'll check it out. You lot stay here." says O'Neill, he heads for the door, "Teal'c, Mitchell you're with me." he says, Daniel follows.

* * *

They run back down the corridor to the lab room, when they reach it they take positions at either side of the door with their guns at the ready, "Okay, open it up." says O'Neill, Teal'c pushes the button to open the door and it slides open.

Mitchell is the first to swing around with his gun and enter the room, the others follow him in.

"What the hell?!" says O'Neill, looking down at the clean and shiny floor.

"Where did all the glass go." says Mitchell.

"What do you mean...what glass?" asks Daniel.

Mitchell looks at Daniel, "The last time we were in this room we got bombarded with vials from these walls, there was broken glass and liquid everywhere." he says.

The floors are completely clean and there isn't a single piece of glass or drop of liquid anywhere, and all the vials appear to have been replaced in to the side walls.

"Sooo...where's the alien?" asks Daniel, he jumps and turns around when he feels something touch him from behind, "Never mind." he says.

O'Neill and Mitchell aim their guns, Teal'c readies his Zat gun, the alien is standing in the corner of the room near the door and staring at them again, occasionally blinking its eyes and tilting its head.

"Guys I think you should lower your weapons." says Daniel.

"Or not." says O'Neill.

"Jack, I don't think it wants to hurt us." says Daniel, "It doesn't have any weapons." he adds.

"Or pants, apparently." says O'Neill.

Although the alien does resemble and Asgard, it clearly has reproductive organs. (That's all I'll say on that matter).

Daniel approaches the alien but still keeping his distance, "Hi do you remember me..Daniel Jackson." he says, the alien doesn't respond.

"Did you clean up the floor in here?" asks Daniel, "I don't think it understands a word I'm saying." he says.

Suddenly the lights start flickering and the ship shakes again and a loud rumble can heard above them, they hear a loud creaking in the ceiling, "Take cover." shouts Mitchell, as the ceiling begins to buckle and bits of metal fall down, they jump to the floor at the back of the room and place their hands on the back of their heads as the ceiling collapses.

As the rumbling stops they look around and see the crumbled and broken ceiling suspended in the air, "Why aren't we dead?" asks Mitchell, they turn and look over to the alien while getting to their feet, the alien is holding out its hand towards the ceiling.

"Everybody out." says O'Neill, looking puzzled.

They all slowly head out of the room cautiously passing the alien and keeping their eye on the ceiling, as they exit the room the alien comes out behind them, as the doors slide shut the ceiling in the room collapses to the floor.

"I think it just saved our lives." says Daniel, as they all stand looking at the alien.

Carter comes over the radio, "Sir, you need to get back to the bridge." she says.

"On our way." replies O'Neill, he stares at the alien unsure if its friend or foe, "Come on guys lets go." he says to the others and they head back.

* * *

They make it back to the bridge and run inside, Carter is stood with Alisana at a console, "What's going on Carter?" asks O'Neill.

"Are you okay?" asks Vala, seeing their hair and uniforms covered in dust.

"Yes, a ceiling collapsed but we're ok." says Daniel.

"Well I managed to get the shields working which should help hold back the rock." says Carter.

"So what's going on?" asks O'Neill, again.

"We were going through the sensors and we found more life signs." says Alisana.

"More aliens...how many life signs?" asks O'Neill.

"At least two hundred" says Carter.

O'Neill shares a look or concern with Mitchell and Teal'c, "Can you close off the area of the ship and contain them?" asks Mitchell.

Carter looks at Alisana, "Well that's the thing...they're not on the ship." says Carter.

"Then where are they?" asks O'Neill.

"Outside." replies Alisana, "Right out there actually." she says, pointing to the bridge window.

"Outside?, I thought we were surrounded by tonnes of rock, how can they be outside?" asks Daniel.

"We're trying to open the bridge shield so we can find out and..." says Carter.

"I've got it...I've got it." says Alisana, interrupting Carter, "Power has been rerouted." she says.

Carter goes over and sits at the left station at the front of the bridge, she finds the control and activates it, a loud jutter is heard and the metal shield covering the dome shaped bridge window slowly begins lifting.

Everyone gathers behind Carter and look towards the window with wonder, the ship lightly shakes as the shield continues to lift up and they see rocks falling and rumbling down around it, they hear another loud noise as the shield fully raises and locks in to place, looking out of the window is like looking at a wall of rock as rocks are still falling in front of the ship.

The number of falling rocks steadily decreases and eventually they stop, a cloud of dust slowly dissipates and their view out of the window becomes clear.

"Oh my God." says Carter.

As they stand looking out of the window in disbelief, they see an opening in the rock in front of them, through it they see a cavern at least two miles wide and across, and at least half a mile high, on the cavern floor they see a large city made of stone, some of it in ruins but most still in tact, rivers and small areas of vegetation are scattered all around.

"It's a city." says Daniel, looking both bemused and excited.


	5. Friend and Foes

SG-1 just stand in awe looking out of the window at the city, unable to quite believe they're seeing what they're seeing.

"This...is so cool." says Alisana, smiling like a kid on Christmas morning.

"Where did this come from?" asks Vala.

"I'm not sure." says Daniel.

"I have a theory about that." says Carter, "The Ancients had to land this ship somewhere, so my initial theory about there being an island here is probably correct...well it has to be." she says.

"How do you figure?" asks O'Neill.

"Well, there's clearly vegetation down here but there's no possible way that it could have gotten down here naturally, so this city must have been above ground at some point, and like I said it was probably covered with rock and ash due to volcanic eruptions." says Carter.

"Wait a second...if the city was covered in rock and ash then why are we seeing it now, shouldn't the whole thing be rubble?" asks Mitchell.

Carter bites her lip, "Yeah...I'm still thinking about that." she says.

Daniel moves over to Carter, "How do we get out of the ship?" he asks.

"Daniel?" says O'Neill.

"Jack, we have get a closer look at this place." says Daniel, turning to face O'Neill.

"Lets go." says Alisana.

"We're not going out there." replies O'Neill, "We don't even know if its safe." he says.

"General." says Mitchell, looking over his back.

"No, I said we're not..." says O'Neill, as he turns to Mitchell he sees the alien peering around the door of the bridge.

* * *

The alien comes round from the side of the door and takes a step in to the room, SG-1 still don't know if its friend or foe, but it did save their lives in the lab and that alone gives them a reason to trust it to some degree, it stands by the door looking at everyone.

"What do we do?" asks Mitchell.

O'Neill looks at Mitchell, "I don't know." he says.

"You should do something." says Vala.

"Like what?" says O'Neill.

"I don't know but its freaking me out just staring at us like that." says Vala, "Do something." she says.

"What do you want me to do, dance with it." says O'Neill, "Daniel, you're the expert at this sort of thing, you do something. Talk to it." he says.

"I've already tried talking to it." replies Daniel.

"Well.." says O'Neill, he gently pushes Daniel forward, "..try again." he says.

Daniel almost trips over from O'Neill's unexpected push, he looks back and gives him a frustrated look, "Fine." he says.

"Ask it what it wants." shouts Mitchell.

Daniel steps close to the alien and the alien look up at him, Daniel smiles briefly then drops to one knee so they're at eye level with each other, "You probably don't understand me but I'm going to try anyway...errm...I'm Daniel, do you have a name?" he asks.

The alien doesn't respond and just keeps staring at Daniel with curiosity, "Okay. What do you want?" asks Daniel, "Why are you here?" he asks.

"Why are you here?" says Daniel, he points to the alien and then to the floor trying to make the alien understand what he's asking, "Why are you...why are..." he says, then he turns to look at the others behind him, "You know what forget it, it doesn't understand." he says.

* * *

As Daniel looks back at the alien, it's hand touches Daniel's forehead and he and the rest of SG-1 slowly pass out and fall to the floor.

The alien communicates with them by implanting memories into their heads and SG-1 see them like a vision or a dream.

The following is what they saw...

The Alterans left their home world of Celestis millions of years ago on board their ship, the Lantis, they plotted a course to an area of space that they hadn't yet explored and was unknown to both them and the Ori.

In order to escape and sever their connection with the Ori they knew they had to put as much distance between them and themselves as possible, knowing that their journey would take many hundreds or possibly thousands of years to complete, they put the Lantis in to hyperspace and the entire crew were placed in to stasis chambers.

As the Lantis passed from galaxy to galaxy, it stopped at each one and awakened the crew, this allowed them to conduct repairs to the ship and they also spent a lot of time exploring these galaxies, taking readings, collecting samples and searching for a new world in which to settle.

A few thousand years later they discovered the Milky Way and decided to make it their new home, when they eventually settled on Earth they found a suitable island in the North Pacific and landed the Lantis on a small mountain top, the island had an abundance of a metal ore they required and it was perfect for their needs, so they set to work building their new home.

A few hundred years later a small group of aliens came through the Stargate that was on the island, they called themselves the Tulla and were seeking refuge from a hostile race known as the Umbra, they carried with them their princess, who had been very badly injured in a battle.

The Alterans granted them refuge and began treating their princess's injuries, the Tulla physiology was quite complex and the Alterans didn't really know how to treat her wounds so they placed her in to a healing pod.

The Tulla were incredibly grateful to the Alterans for giving them refuge and as a thank you they helped the Alterans with their project.

The Alterans continued working with the Tulla on their project for a number of years and once completed they launched a large number of ships from the island, however, as the last ship was launched, the surface began to crack and volcanic fissures opened all over the island, soon the nearby volcano started erupting and large quakes shook the entire island, the Alterans had mined so much of the metal ore from the island that the surface had become thin and weak

They evacuated the city using small shuttles to ferry people off the island, a small crew attempted to move the Lantis, but large boulders and rock erupting from the volcano had damaged the engines, they had no choice but to abandon it and head for the shuttles, the Tulla however refused to leave and despite the crews best efforts they were unable to convince them to go with them and so reluctantly left them behind.

The Tulla used their abilities to protect the city as best they could, but despite their efforts, the island still crumbled and sank to the bottom of the ocean.

* * *

SG-1 slowly regain consciousness and lift themselves up to their knees, feeling quite dizzy.

"Ooar...what was that?" says Alisana, "My heads killing me." she says.

"I feel very strange." says Teal'c.

"Everyone alright?" asks O'Neill, rubbing the back of his neck.

"I had the weirdest dream." says Vala, "Something about ships and a fire."

"I had the same dream." says O'Neill.

"Same here." says Carter.

"I don't think that was a dream." says Daniel, "I think the he was answering my question." he says, pointing to the alien.

They all discuss what they saw in their dreams and all saw exactly the same thing, it answers some things but also brings up other questions.

Daniel is still on his knees and he looks at the alien, "I don't understand, if the island was sinking, why did you stay behind?" he asks.

"I am Yol" says the alien.

"It speaks." says Mitchell.

Yol looks at Mitchell, "I learnt your language when I shared my memories with you." he says.

"So why did you stay behind?" asks Daniel.

"The Alterans were helping to heal the princess, however it was taking quite some time and when the island was being evacuated she was still inside the healing pod on board the ship, we could not leave her behind." says Yol.

"You've been stuck down here for thousands of years?" asks Carter.

Yol nods, "Yes." he says.

"Where's the princess now?" asks O'Neill.

Yol walks around Daniel towards the window, he points out of it towards a large structure in the middle of the city, "There." he says.

"She's still alive?" asks a confused Carter, "After all this time." she adds.

"She remains in the pod." replies Yol.

"Are you saying she hasn't healed yet?" says Daniel.

"She has." says Yol.

O'Neill walks over to Yol, "Then why is she still in there?" he asks.

Yol explains that shortly after the destruction of the island, he and the other 4 guards were taking the princess's pod to the Stargate when it suddenly activated, a small number of Umbra managed to come through the Stargate and they immediately attacked the Tulla guards.

The Tulla tried to move the pod but they couldn't move it fast enough and were soon surrounded by 30 or so Umbra, suddenly the rock above the Stargate began to crumble and huge boulders fell to the ground, this provided a distraction and as the Umbra turned to see what was happening, the Tulla used the opportunity to escape, but they had to leave the pod behind.

The Tulla retreated back to the Lantis and sealed themselves inside, the Stargate was crushed and buried under thousands of tonnes of rock, the Tulla watched from the window of the Lantis as the Umbra took the pod in to the city, with the Stargate gone, neither the Tulla or the Umbra could leave and they have been there ever since.

"You left her there at the mercy of the Umbra?" asks Mitchell.

"They will not harm the princess." says Yol.

"Where are the other guards?" asks O'Neill.

Yol lowers his head looking a little sad, "I am the last." he says, "The others attempted to recover the princess...the Umbra killed them. They have far greater numbers." he adds.

"You're one of the original guards?. How can that be?." asks Daniel.

"The Tulla can live for many thousands of years, we do not die from natural causes. We can however die from injury." replies Yol.

"You said around 30 came through the Stargate, we detected at least 200." says Carter.

"Their life span is only a few hundred years." says Yol, "The Umbra have been breeding quite excessively and increasing their numbers." he adds.

"Why didn't you guys do that?" asks O'Neill.

Yol gives O'Neill a strange look, "We were all male." he says.

"Oh..." says O'Neill, "I see." he says, looking a little stupid.

Alisana walks over to Yol and kneels beside him, "How long have you been alone down here?" she asks.

"Over 600 years." replies Yol.

Everyone in the room goes silent after hearing that, they sympathise with Yol and truly feel for him, being alone for such a long period of time..they can't even imagine how that must feel.

"Well we're going to help you." says Alisana.

"We are?" says O'Neill.

"Yes." says Daniel, "It's the right thing to do, Jack." he says.

"Yeah...I know." says O'Neill, "How many did you say they were out there?" he asks, looking at Carter.

"200 Sir." says Carter.

Mitchell pushes down a mag in to his P90, "4 P90's, 6 mags a piece, 8 grenades, 2 Zats and some C4 versus 200 bad guys." he says, "A walk in the park." he adds.

"Actually...we'll be walking through the city." says O'Neill, jokingly.

"Alright, Teal'c, Mitchell, Daniel, you come with me. The rest of you stay here, Carter concentrate on the ship, figure out a way to get this thing out of here." says O'Neill, "Do you have a weapon?" he asks, looking at Yol.

"My mind." replies Yol.

"Knowledge is power huh." says O'Neill, "Well come on, you need to show us where we're going. Maybe we'll find you some pants on our way out." he says.


	6. Umbra

While Carter, Alisana and Vala continue working to find a way to salvage the ship, the others are making their way through the corridors with Yol.

"Are you related to the Asgard?" asks O'Neill.

"I have not heard of the Asgard." says Yol.

"Well you look like them." says O'Neill, "Bony, skinny, naked." he adds.

"So you have psychokinetic powers?" asks Daniel, quickly changing the subject, "You can move things with your mind." he says.

"Yes." replies Yol.

"Why don't you use that on the Umbra, can't you float them away or something." asks O'Neill.

Yol briefly looks over his back at O'Neill, "The Umbra also possess powerful minds, although they're not as advanced as ours, they're capable of blocking our abilities making them less effective." he says.

"So let me get this straight, you guys are guardians to the princess...and the only weapon you have is your mind, which isn't that effective." asks Mitchell, "Why don't you have guns?" he asks.

"We use weapons such as guns, however, we did not have time to arm ourselves before we came through the Stargate." says Yol.

"What about the Umbra, do they have guns?" asks O'Neill.

"Yes." replies Yol.

O'Neill stops walking, "Hold it." he shouts, they all stop and look at him.

"What type of weapons do they have exactly?, what are we up against out there?" asks O'Neill.

"They only possess the weapons their ancestors were carrying when they came through the Stargate, at minimum...30 energy weapons." says Yol.

"Anything else?" asks O'Neill.

"They're also extremely good hunters. It will not be easy." says Yol.

"Why have the Umbra not attempted to gain access to the ship?" asks Teal'c.

"They have, many times. Thankfully the hull is strong and their energy weapons proved ineffective when they attempted to penetrate it, they gave up trying many years ago." says Yol.

Daniel notices Yol looking a little disheartened, "What's wrong?" he asks.

"I am the last guardian, if I die, there will be no one to free the princess and I will have failed my mission, and my people." says Yol, "The princess must survive, the fate of our people depends on her safe return home." he says.

"Then we will not fail." says Teal'c.

"Why are you helping me win a battle that is not yours to fight?" asks Yol.

"It's what we do." says O'Neill, "Come on, lets go get your princess. Then we can get the hell out of here." he says.

* * *

They start walking again and eventually reach an exit point on the ship, before heading outside they do a weapons check and ensure they have everything they need.

"Carter, come in." says O'Neill over the radio.

"Here Sir." replies Carter.

"We're at an exit on the East side of the ship, what's out best route from here to the city?" asks O'Neill.

Alisana brings up an external scan on her display and Carter stands by her.

The city sits on a large circle of stone on the surface, from the outer edge and winding inwards are hundreds of buildings of various sizes and style, the architecture is similar to that of Mayan, Aztec and ancient Greek, at the far edge of the city stands an enormous tower, it almost reaches the roof of the cavern, the tower was probably the middle of the city but the structures behind that are no longer visible and have long since been destroyed and covered in tonnes of rock.

"There isn't a lot of vegetation so if you're looking for cover you're going to have to stay on the East side for about half a mile there's a large cluster of big rocks which should provide cover, after that you'll come to a small river, go West up the river about 100 meters and then head North and you'll be inside the city, you're on your own from their Sir, we can't scan the interior, but we can tell you where the Umbra are, right now they're all on the west side of the city so you should be alright." says Carter.

"Okay, then that's the plan, everybody stay close together and stay alert." says Mitchell.

"Can you run?" asks O'Neill, looking at Yol's small skinny legs.

"Do not worry, I will keep up with you." says Yol, "I will go in front." he says.

"Okay, Carter, we're heading out." says O'Neill over the radio.

"Good luck Sir." replies Carter.

Teal'c pushes the button to open the door and it opens, sliding sideways, "Lets go." says O'Neill and they all swiftly exit the ship, keeping low and moving around to the large rocks East of them.

* * *

Carter, Alisana and Vala remain on the bridge and are trying to come up with a plan to salvage the ship.

"So...ideas?" asks Vala.

"Well we can't fly it out of here." says Alisana, she uses the console to bring up the engine status, "The engines are fried, and even if we could fly it we wouldn't be able to break through all this rock." she says.

"If we had a hammer we could take it apart and take it out of here piece by piece." says Vala, jokingly.

Carter smiles, "Okay lets think about this, we can't fly it, it's completely surrounded by rock so we probably couldn't even move it if we try, and we can't take it apart...what if we beam it out." she says.

"How?, the Daedalus' sensors can't scan through the rock and if they can't calculate the size and mass of the ship they can't beam it out." says Alisana.

Carter holds up her finger with an idea, "Yes, but...we have access to the systems now, if we send the Daedalus detailed plans and schematics of the ship they should be able to calculate the size and mass, then use that data to beam it out." she says.

"But they still don't know our exact position, and the ship will be at an angle stuck in this rock, how are they going to put that in to their equations?" says Alisana.

Carter shrugs her shoulders, "Well that's what we'll have to figure out, and we don't have a lot of time so we better get to it." she says.

As Carter and Alisana turn back to their consoles, Vala walks over and sits in the captains chair, leaning sideways she rest on the left arm of the chair and drapes her leg over the over arm, looking quite comfortable.

"What are you doing?" asks Carter.

"I have no idea what you two are talking about or what you're doing, so I won't be of much help, I'll just sit here...out of the way." replies Vala.

Carter points over to Alisana, "Go over there and watch the external sensors, you can monitor the guys progress and update them on the location of the Umbra." she says, firmly.

* * *

The others are outside making their way through the cavern towards the city, they're just a few meters away from the river, there isn't much light inside the cavern but they can see wooden torches standing and burning around the edge of the city, the ocean above is flowing through a small crack in the roof of the cavern and falling like a narrow waterfall to the surface below, creating the river.

They huddle down at the edge of the river, a wide bridge stretches across it above them, "Okay, Carter said West, so we head under the bridge." says O'Neill, they all head under the bridge as O'Neill wave them through and then follow behind.

"Mitchell, I'm seeing three life signs heading towards you." says Vala over the radio.

As they reach the other side of the bridge and hear the radio call, Mitchell holds up his fist indicating to the others to stop, looking out he sees three Umbra walking around above them.

"What do you see?" asks O'Neill, as he makes his way to the front.

"Three Umbra." replies Mitchell, as he watches them walk away in the opposite direction, he indicates to the others its safe to move on.

As they walk out from under the bridge, a rock is accidentally knocked off the surrounding wall and makes loud noises as it rolls down, everyone stops and cringes, the three Umbra heard the noise and turn around and walk to the edge of the bridge, they stand at the edge slowly looking around.

* * *

The Umbra are around 6 foot tall, dark skinned and are very heavy built, they look slightly humanoid but have long pointy chins and large yellow eyes, they wear clothing made from rags, some are wearing wraps around their waists and have shoes made of wood and twine, due to their breeding they've had to make clothing from whatever materials they could get their hands on, the others are dressed similar but also have pieces of armour covering their knees, waist, chest and gauntlets on their arms, some carry primitive staffs and daggers while others have powerful energy guns.

* * *

The Umbra turn and walk away when they don't see anything, "Two more coming from the South." says Vala, unexpectedly over the radio, O'Neill quickly reaches for his radio to turn it down, it's too late, the Umbra heard it and run back to the river, they look down and see them under the bridge.

"Damn it!" shouts O'Neill, as the Umbra points his gun at them, O'Neill and Mitchell step out and open fire, "Back back, go back." he shouts to the others and they run back under the bridge.

They manage to take out two of them who have primitive weapons, as the third approaches, it fires its energy gun at them, O'Neill and Mitchell dive out of the way in opposite directions, when Mitchell lands, he quickly kneels up and swings around, opening fire with his P90 he manages to take down the Umbra, who's body tumbles and falls down in to the river.

O'Neill and Mitchell get up and walk over to the Umbra's body, "Yep he's dead." says Mitchell, they see what appears to be green blood bleeding out of it, they hear a rustle behind them and swing around pointing their guns, they see two Umbra but as they turned around, Yol is standing on the bridge holding out his hand, he's using his powers and floating the Umbra in the air, Yol then sweeps his hand and the Umbra go flying through the air way off in to the distance and slamming against a wall.

O'Neill and Mitchell stare at Yol in amazement for a few seconds, "Nice." says O'Neill, he then turns to Mitchell, "Lets go." he says as they head back under the bridge, Mitchell spots the Umbra's gun and picks it up, "This oughta come in handy." he says.

They rejoin the others and following Yol, they climb up the side of the river wall and on to the bridge, "Vala give us a click next time and wait for us to respond before you talk." says O'Neil.

"Sorry General." replies Vala, "You may want to get out of there though, I'm detecting more life signs heading your way from the West." she says.

"How many?" asks O'Neill.

"Err...all of them." replies Vala.

Carter comes on the radio, "Sir, don't forget they could be more inside the city, we can't scan it so we don't know." she says.

"We need to move, O'Neill." says Teal'c.

They reload their guns and run across the bridge towards the city entrance, they have no idea if more Umbra are inside the city but with nearly 200 hearing the gun fire and heading towards their position, they have no choice but to head inside.


	7. Trapped

O'Neill, Mitchell, Teal'c, Daniel and Yol have made it into the city and are quickly yet stealthily making their way through the streets and alleyways trying to reach the tower, they can see lots of broken pots, windows and parts of buildings scattered on the floor, some passageways are blocked by fallen buildings so they're constantly having to backtrack in to different directions.

As they're running along the side of a building and come to its edge, just as O'Neill runs around the side of it, he skids to a stop and jumps back behind the building, two Umbra are around the corner, "Yol." whispers O'Neill, calling to him as they all stand with their backs against the wall.

Yol shuffles in front of O'Neill and leans around the corner, holding out his arm he uses his power to lift them off the ground, as he's about to fling them away they drop back to the floor landing on their feet, Yol ducks back, "They have blocked my powers, I can no longer immobilise them." he says.

"Teal'c." says O'Neill.

Teal'c comes to the front and stands with his back to the wall, he raises his arm and activates his Zat gun, he quickly turns and kneels down, leaning out from behind the building he fires at the Umbra and takes them down, "It is clear, O'Neill." he says, standing up and walking towards the Umbra, when he reaches them he fires two more shots at them both, disintegrating them.

* * *

They continue on through the alleyways and eventually exit in to a street and a few hundred meters in front of them they see large stone stairs leading directly to the tower, they stop momentarily and look up at the enormous tower, it appears to have lights inside which they can see through the windows, "There it is." says Mitchell.

With the tower only a short distance away they pick up pace and run towards it, they all slow down and stop when they hear footsteps and strange noises just ahead of them, as the sounds and footsteps get louder they realise some ones coming, in a panic they look around and the only place to hide is in the nearest building, they run over to it and Teal'c kicks open the door, "Get in, come on." says Mitchell as he ushers everyone inside, then enters and shuts the door behind him.

"Now what do we do?" asks Mitchell, sitting on the floor with his back against the door.

The building they're in appears to be a single level house, there's a bed, drawers, table and chairs, rugs and even curtains, although the inside of the house is quite dirty and the materials are wearing away it all looks very basic.

Daniel is sitting under a window facing the tower, "Jack." he says, calling him over.

O'Neill goes over, keeping low so not to be seen, Daniel flicks his head up, indicating to O'Neill he should look out of the window.

Looking out of the window he sees at least 11 Umbra right outside and directly in front of the stairs leading to the tower.

O'Neill hears a click on his radio, he turns from looking out of the window and ducks down next to Daniel, "Go ahead." he says over the radio.

"How's it going Sir?" asks Carter.

"Not good. We're almost there." replies O'Neill.

"Well you better hurry up, those Umbra are about to enter the city." says Carter, sounding concerned.

"We need to get out of here." says Mitchell.

Daniel points upwards at the window, "How are we going to get passed them?" he asks.

"Hey Yoda." shouts O'Neill in a loud whisper.

"You mean Yol." says Daniel.

"Whatever." says O'Neill, "Can't you use your powers to drop a building on them or something?" he asks.

"I can not, they're aware of my presence in the city, they will continue blocking my powers until I am found." replies Yol, "I am sorry." he says.

"Ideas...thoughts...suggestions?" asks O'Neill, looking around at everyone.

"We need a distraction." says Teal'c.

Mitchell reaches for his vest, opening a pocket he pulls out some C4, "Drop a building on them you said." he says.

* * *

They come with a plan to get rid of the Umbra guarding the stairs, they stick C4 to the far wall pointing towards the stairs, they then quietly gather the drawers, bed and table and turn them on to their sides placing them by the opposite wall, taking cover behind them they put their plan in motion, "Ready." says O'Neill, "1...2...3" he says.

On the count of 3, O'Neill, Mitchell and Teal'c pull the pins from their grenades, holding two a piece then stand and throw them smashing through the windows as far as they can towards the stairs using them as a distraction, then they duck back down behind the furniture.

The Umbra hear the smashing windows and look towards the house, they see the grenades fly out and land behind them, they turn and look at the grenades on the floor with curiosity, the grenades go off and injure and stun them, they immediately turn and run towards the house, O'Neill is holding a detonator, as the Umbra turn and face the house he blows the C4, the side of the house explodes bombarding the Umbra with rocks and stone, killing them all.

"Haha, it worked." says Mitchell.

"Okay lets move, the others are coming." says O'Neill.

They run out through the demolished wall and head towards the stairs, jumping over the rocks and Umbra as they go.

"You guys go on ahead." shouts Mitchell, stopping at the foot of the stairs as the others head up them.

O'Neill turns, "Come on, Mitchell. What are you doing?" he shouts.

"Just go, I've got an idea." says Mitchell.

Mitchell runs off towards an alleyway, the rest get up the stairs and get to the tower, standing at the open door they take positions and enter with guns poised, they don't see anyone inside.

* * *

Inside the large hall of the tower is a winding staircase leading to the upper floors, in the middle of the room is a circle of stone columns about 5 feet high with burning torches on them, they also see opens doors and another room at the back of the tower, through the doors and right at the back of the room they see the pod.

"The princess." says Yol, pointing to the pod.

Suddenly energy blasts start hitting the outer door, "Argh." shouts Daniel, ducking for cover, "Teal'c help me with the door." shouts O'Neill, he and Teal'c push the large heavy doors closed as energy blasts continue to hit the doors and the walls of the tower, O'Neill is hit on the arm just as the doors close.

O'Neill slides with his back against the door to the floor holding his arm, "Oow...damn it." he shouts.

"Are you okay O'Neill?" asks Teal'c, kneeling down to check on him.

"Yeah, it's just a graze." says O'Neill, "Burns like hell." he says, Teal'c helps him to his feet.

"I don't think those doors are going to hold them for long." says Daniel.

They look around trying to find something to barricade the door, "The columns." says Teal'c.

"Right. Daniel, help us push these things over." says O'Neill.

Two columns stand at either side of the main doors and they push them over, blocking the doors, using the columns in the middle of the hall they push the nearest ones over to put as much weight against the doors as possible.

"Alright that should slow them down a little." says O'Neill, he picks up his gun, "Lets get in to that other room." he says, they all head in to the back room and close the doors behind them.

The floor of the back room is littered with broken wood, rotten food, and small piles of Umbra bones lay scattered around the sides of the room, at the very back of the room is a large circular stone platform, on top of the platform stands the pod with the princess still inside, Yol headed towards the back room just before the Umbra attacked the tower, he is now standing on the platform with his hand placed on the glass front of the pod.

Teal'c and O'Neill close the doors and use a large piece of broken wood to hold them closed.

O'Neill reaches for his radio and clicks the button a few times, "Come on, Mitchell, respond." he says to himself.

They've successfully reached the tower and found the princess, but the Umbra now appear to have them trapped, Mitchell is not responding to his radio and the barricade won't hold the Umbra back for long.


	8. Escape

Yol stands in front of the pod with his hand pressed on the glass cover, he wipes away a thin layer of ice and inside he sees the Princess fully healed but still sleeping, "Yol, is that her?" asks Daniel as he approaches and stands next to Yol.

"Yes, the pod has kept her alive." says Yol.

"Carter...Carter, do you read?" says O'Neill over the radio, "Alisana?...Vala?." he adds.

They get no response from anyone over the radio, "What the hell is going on." says O'Neill, looking worried.

"Guys." shouts Daniel, and O'Neill and Teal'c come over, "I don't think we're going to be able to move the pod out of here." he says.

"We'll be lucky if we get out of here, we need to get her out." says O'Neill, "Yol, you know how to open this thing?" he asks.

"Yes." replies Yol, he then makes his away around to the back of the pod and gets to work.

* * *

Meanwhile back on the Lantis, the girls have been unable to get in to contact with the others in the city and they're still trying to perfect their plan to save the ship, they have been in constant communication with the Daedalus going over their plans, Dr Bill Lee has been transported to the Daedalus and is helping make the calculations.

"Have you got it yet?" asks Carter.

"We've extrapolated the size and location of the ship based on the scans and data you sent us, but it's...it's still not enough." replies Bill.

"Why isn't it enough?, you should have everything you need." says Carter.

"I know, but we still need to know the exact position of the ship. We'll basically be beaming blind, if we're off by even a millimetre it could destroy the whole thing." replies Bill.

"Can't you just widen the the area and beam the rock around the ship out with it?" asks Alisana.

"They still need to know our exact position." says Carter.

Vala picks up the booster rods off the floor, "Use these." she says.

Carter and Alisana look at Vala a little puzzled.

"These amplify and boost the signal correct?" says Vala.

"Right." says Carter, "We can use these. If we place these around...say, the captains chair for instance...then the Daedalus should be able to detect the rods and distance and angle between...then using the plans of the Lantis that they have they should easily be able to calculate the exact position and angle of the ship." she says.

"Good job Vala." says Alisana.

Vala brushes her hair back, "Well you don't look this good without having some brains you know." she says, loving herself.

"Okay, Bill...we're going to try something, we'll be in touch soon." says Carter.

"This is Caldwell, any news from General O'Neill?" asks Caldwell.

"Negative, we're still unable to make contact." replies Carter, "We need to give them some time...I'm sure they're fine." she says

"If we don't hear from them in the next few minutes I'm sending down a rescue team." says Caldwell.

* * *

In the city, the Umbra have gathered at the tower entrance, several of them are using a large piece of wood to hit the doors, swinging it back and forth like a battering ram in an attempt to break the doors open, the Umbra's speech appears to consist of various moaning and groaning sounds as one of them stands by the doors giving orders to the others.

Inside the tower, Yol is hard at work trying to reroute power to the pods locking mechanism so he can release the princess, the others are waiting for him to finish.

O'Neill is by the door, he can hear the thumping of the Umbra's battering ram, "Come on Yol, we don't have a lot of time here." he says.

Teal'c has been wondering around the room trying to find another way out, he sees a small pile of brick blocks on the floor by the back wall, there is a crack in the wall and he looks through it, he can see a building across the way, "O'Neill." he shouts.

"What is it Teal'c?" asks O'Neill, walking over.

Teal'c looks around the small area of the wall with the crack in it and uses his hands to feel around, "I believe I may have found a way out, this wall has been damaged...if we can break through it we may have a chance for escape." he says.

"Yeaaah." says O'Neill, looking at the wall, "Or the whole tower could come down on us." he says.

"What choice do we have, O'Neill?" says Teal'c, "We can not go out the way we came, if we remain...the Umbra will certainly overpower us within moments." he adds.

"I have done it." says Yol, he activates a crystal in the panel at the back of the pod and walks around to the front, O'Neill and Teal'c look and then run over to Yol and Daniel.

Jets of freezing cold air come shooting out from both sides of the pod at its base, then the glass cover pops out about an inch and then slides away to the left of the pod, for a few seconds white foggy mist fills the pod and then dissipates, revealing the princess, everyone looks in wonder as it happens.

"Woah." says Daniel in urgency, as he quickly steps forward to catch the princess who starts falling forward out of the pod, he catches her and bends down gently laying her on the ground.

"Err, Daniel." says O'Neill, "You wonna...cover her up." he says, looking a little uncomfortable.

Just like Yol, the princess isn't wearing any clothes, and as the Tulla are 'anatomically correct' it's making O'Neill and Teal'c a little uncomfortable.

"Oh right..yeah." says Daniel, he reaches in to the pod and grabs a white blanket that was originally draped over her and he pulls it out, "Sorry." he says as he covers her with the blanket.

* * *

The princess takes a long breath and then slowly blinks her eyes open, Daniel is kneeling beside her looking down at her, "Hello." says Daniel as she opens her eyes, the princess gasps and holds up her hand, Daniel is knocked back a few feet and caught by O'Neill and Teal'c.

"Hey!" shouts O'Neill.

Yol speaks in the Tulla native language, "Princess, princess." says Yol, holding out his hands for calm, "They're friends." he says.

"Are you okay DanielJackson?" asks Teal'c.

Daniel looks a little surprised, "Yeah...thanks." he says.

Yol helps the princess to her feet as she tries to get up, she uses her hands to hold the blanket over her, Yol walks behind her and ties the blanket behind her back to keep it steady and it now looks like a white dress, as Yol walks back around in front of her, he takes a bow, "Princess." he says.

"It's okay...we won't hurt you, we're here to help." says Daniel.

The princess looks at Yol in confusion, she doesn't understand what Daniel is saying, Yol realises this and holds her hand for a moment, he teaches her their language in an instant so she can understand.

"Please accept my sincere apology." says the princess, "I was startled when I awoke." she adds.

Daniel walks back over to her, "That's okay, you don't need to apologise." he says with a smile.

"My name is Filida." she says.

"Filida." says Daniel, "It's an honour to meet you. I'm Daniel, this is Teal'c and Jack." he says, briefly turning back to point to them.

"You are not Alterans?" asks Filida.

"Err no..no we're not." replies Daniel.

"Princess." says Yol, he reaches out and holds her hand again, this time he shares his memories with her and she learns what's happened.

As Filida learns what has happened over the centuries, she looks deeply saddened, "Your brothers will not be forgotten dear Yol." she says in a comforting tone, "We must return home and rid our people of the Umbra scourge." she says.

"Filida, it's been thousands of years. I hate to be the one to say this but you may not have a home to go back too." says Daniel.

"The war is not over yet, our people will survive but only if I return home." says Filida.

"What is this war about anyway?" asks O'Neill.

* * *

Filida explains...

Millennia ago the first two Tulla emerged on our world, a male and a female named Cio and Mia, they fed on what little food they could find on our nearly barren world, they would travel great distances every day just to find food to survive.

Mia became pregnant with child and the harsh weather of our planet and Mia's condition made it harder and harder to travel as the days went by, they were unable to find food for many days and as they became weak they found a cave and went inside for shelter from the harsh weather, they sat in the cave, cold and hungry and believing they were going to die.

As they lay on the verge of death, the cave shook and rocks fell all around, afterwards Cio and Mia saw a sparkling light on the cave wall, they went over to it with curiosity and found a small crystal embedded in the rock.

Cio removed the crystal and he and Mia held it in their hands, the light from the crystal got brighter and then a beautiful wave of light expanded out from the crystal and travelled over the entire planet, as they walked to the mouth of the cave they saw the planet being transformed before their eyes, rivers, oceans, trees, plants and food appeared from nowhere and the harsh weather receded and soon the planet was full of life.

The lives of Cio, Mia and their unborn child were saved, and our planet and race flourished from that day forward.

The crystal had saved them and it was greatly powerful, without it we would not be here today and it is known as the God Stone, our people have not used its power since that day and it has been entrusted and kept safe by the royal family for millions of years since.

Somehow the Umbra found out about the God Stone and wish to possess its power, they came to our galaxy on a mission to take it from us, we do not know how they found out about the stone or why they're so violently determined to take it from us, but they have killed millions of our people and enslaved millions more.

Before we arrived here my mother and father, the king and queen, met with representatives of the Umbra to try negotiate a peace between our people, but they were not interested and they murdered my parents and I barely made it out alive.

As the guards were taking me to safety, the Umbra representatives caught up with us and opened fire, several guards were killed but we managed to get to a ship and escape, after a few days the Umbra caught up with us again and attacked us, our ship was badly damaged and we crashed on a nearby planet, that is when we discovered the Stargate and used it to travel here, however, as we were activating it we were attacked on the ground and I was hit with the blasts.

"So where is this stone now?" asks O'Neill.

"It is hidden on our world, in a place the Umbra will never find it." says Filida

"That's why they followed you here." says O'Neill.

"I am the only one who knows where it is hidden, if we can get back home I can use it to restore our world and free our people." replies Filida.

Just then they hear a loud bang on the room doors, the Umbra have breached the tower entrance and are now attempting to gain entry to the back room.

"We have to get out of here right now." says O'Neill with urgency, "That doors only going to hold for about a minute." he says

O'Neill and Teal'c run towards the weak back wall with the crack in it and raise their P90s and start shooting at it firing off hundreds of rounds, putting holes in it and weakening it further, O'Neill stops firing and pulls out a grenade, "Alright, everyone get down." he shouts as he pulls the pin, he throws the grenade at the wall and dives out of the way behind the platform and pod.


	9. Victory

As the back wall explodes from the grenade, clouds of dust and rubble spread in to the room, as it dissipates, O'Neill goes over to the large hole that was created in the wall, he sticks his head out and has a quick look around, "Its clear..come on." he shouts, waving the others to come over, as the other get to their feet and make their way over, the doors bust open, "O'Neill" shouts Teal'c turning to see the Umbra squeezing through the doorway like a clowder of cats squeezing through a cat flap.

Teal'c, Daniel and O'Neill gradually form a line as they open fire on the Umbra and move back towards the hole in the wall, flashes of light, smoke and dust spread all around the room and the walls from P90, Zat and energy gun fire, the sound echoing through the room is deafening, bodies of the Umbra start piling up near the door.

"I'm out." shouts Daniel, he ducks behind O'Neill to reload.

They keep firing but they've only managed to take out 9 of them, "DanielJackson." shouts Teal'c, "Its jammed!" replies Daniel, trying to load his gun

O'Neill runs out of ammo and starts reloading, then the wall around the door crumbles and breaks as the Umbra push through, several of them rush forward wearing plates of armour and carrying energy guns, "...Sh*t." says O'Neill as he looks up, still loading his P90, the Umbra open fire but the energy beams stop a few feet ahead of them.

They look around and see Filida with her arm out and concentrating, she's creating an energy barrier in the middle of the room, the Umbra stop and try punching the barrier but they're unable to get through, "Maybe we should leave now." says Daniel.

They quickly back away and get to the hole in the wall and step out, Filida remains standing near the wall, "Filida, let's go." says O'Neill, Yol grabs her arm and starts pulling her, "Come princess, come." he says.

As Yol pulls her out through the hole in the wall, O'Neill takes one last look and sees the barrier disappear and the Umbra immediately start running forward, he turns and runs along the side wall with the others "Go, move, go." he shouts.

Out of the tower they make their way around the back, running and jumping over boulders and rocks, they come to a steep slope and slide down it one by one as the groans of the Umbra get louder and louder, closing in on their position.

They make it down the slope and back in to the alleyways between the buildings, Daniel takes the lead and Yol holding Filida's hand run behind him, Teal'c and O'Neill are behind them and turning occasionally to fire at the pursuing Umbra, they continue running through the maze of alleyways until they come out in to a street just ahead of the tower stairs.

The Umbra who was issuing orders to the others at the tower entrance spots them emerge from the alleyway, he lifts his head and lets out a loud roaring sound alerting the other Umbra, he then looks and points to the street and the Umbra come poring out of the tower and chase after them.

"We must run faster." shouts Teal'c, they all run down the street ducking and darting around to avoid the energy blasts and spears being fired and thrown at them, suddenly a large explosion blows out of two buildings at either side of the street between them and the pursuing Umbra, the force of the blast sends them crashing to the floor.

After the blast stops rining in their ears they lift themselves up and look back, 20 or so Umbra lay dead on the floor behind them but they can see the remaining Umbra running through the cloud of smoke and dust, then Mitchell comes darting out of an alleyway near them, "Mitchell?" says O'Neill, "What are you waiting for..let's go." shouts Mitchell.

They make it to the city entrance and continue to fire of shots behind them as the massive horde of Umbra start gaining on them, "Where have you been?" asks O'Neill.

"Saving our asses." replies Mitchell.

"What?" says O'Neill.

Mitchell reaches in to his vest pocket and pulls out a detonator, O'Neill just looks at him slightly puzzled, Mitchell points upwards to his left at the cavern wall and smiles, O'Neill turns and looks, "Get back to the Lantis." he shouts.

They pick up pace but Yol and Filida lag behind, with such small legs they just can't keep up, as they cross the bridge a section suddenly collapses and Yol and Filida are hanging off the side, Yol pulls Filida up and pushes her back on to the bridge, "Go princess." he says, then the part of the bridge he's holding on to breaks and he falls down on to the rocks at the side of the river.

Mitchell is closest and he runs back over to them, he looks over the bridge, "Yol, hold on I'm coming to get ya." he says, the Umbra run out of the city entrance towards the bridge, "Take the princess to safety, leave me." shouts Yol.

The Umbra will be there within seconds so Mitchell grabs the princess, holding her like an infant in his arm he runs away.

O'Neill turns and sees Mitchell running towards him carrying Filida, "Where's Yol?" he asks.

"He fell off the bridge." says Mitchell, "Daniel, take her." he says, passing him Filida.

While Daniel takes Filida back to the Lantis, Mitchell, Teal'c and Mitchell run back towards the bridge laying down as much fire as they can to slow down the Umbra.

On the bridge of the Lantis, Vala sees life signs appear on the sensors again, "I've got them." she says.

"General, is everything okay?" says Carter on the radio.

Daniel scrambles to get his radio from his pocket, "Sam, Sam." he says.

"Daniel?" she replies.

"I've got the princess, I'm coming back now." says Daniel.

Vala points at two life signs heading towards the ship, "That's them." she says.

* * *

As Daniel reaches the exit door of the Lantis, the rescue team Caldwell sent down emerge from the exit, "Whoa.." says Daniel as he stops momentarily.

"Where are the others?" asks Major Pauletti, leader of the rescue team.

Daniel points behind him, "Back there." he says as he barges passed the rescue team on to the ship.

The rescue team run off to find the others.

Mitchell and Teal'c are kneeling a few meters from the bridge firing everything they've got at the Umbra and managing to slow them down and take a few of them out, O'Neill makes his way around and under the bridge to Yol.

"Hey." he says, looking at Yol laying on the ground.

"The princess?" says Yol.

"She's safe...come on lets get out of here." says O'Neill.

"I can not move, my legs are broken." replies Yol.

Just as Mitchell and Teal'c are about to be seriously overpowered, the rescue approach from behind and open fire, holding the Umbra back once again.

"Let's go, SG-1." shouts Major Pauletti.

"O'Neill, we must leave immediately." shouts Teal'c.

"Leave me, save yourself." says Yol.

"For crying out loud." says O'Neill, he goes over and picks him up, with Yol in his arms he makes his way back under the bridge, while trying to avoid the Umbra bodies falling off the side he makes his way up the bank to the others.

Teal'c takes Yol off O'Neill and they all start running back but continuing to fire, "Carter, I hope you're ready to go." says O'Neill over his radio.

"Almost Sir." replies Carter.

"We have two minutes before this place comes down." says O'Neill.

"Two minutes?...that's not enough time." says Carter.

"Two minutes!" replies O'Neill in a firm tone.

O'Neill drops his radio and begins firing again, he turns to Mitchell, "Now would be a good time." he says.

"Yes Sir." says Mitchell, he grabs his detonator, "Haul ass!" he shouts, and he pushes the button.

When Mitchell separated from the others when they got to the tower stairs, he went back to the river, once there he scaled the cavern wall next to the narrow waterfall, when he reached the top he placed C4 in to the crack where the ocean water is seeping through.

* * *

Detonating the C4 it blows the crack wide open and the surrounding rock face breaks apart allowing the ocean water to rush through at an alarming rate.

The others on the bridge of the ship heard the explosion and went to to the window to see what was happening, "Are they insane." says Vala.

Carter and Alisana look at each other with disbelief, "We better hurry." says Alisana, "Yeah!" says Carter.

The Umbra turn and look when they hear the explosion, a massive wave of water sweeps most of them away and the cavern quickly starts filling up with water.

The rescue team and the others make it back to the ship, as water catches up with them and flows in to the ship they rush inside and seal the door, they stand leaning against the walls of the corridor, exhausted and out of breath, "That was fun." says Mitchell.

"You're nuts do you know that." says O'Neill.

"We are not yet out of danger." says Teal'c.

"Right. Lets get to the bridge." says O'Neill.

With everyone now back on the ship and standing on the bridge, they need to hurry up and get out of there, Carter is carefully positioning the booster rods around the corners of the captains chair and turning them on, the tops of the rods glow and hum but one is malfunctioning, "Okay try it now." she says.

Alisana is at a console trying to connect a signal to the rods, "Still nothing." she says.

"Damn it." shouts Carter, getting frustrated.

Looking out of the window in to the cavern, it's now a third filled with water and continuing to rise rapidly as it flows through the roof of the cavern, and the city in the distance is gradually being submerged.

Carter has been working on the rod for several minutes trying to get it to work.

"Carter, we need to leave right now." says O'Neill.

"Just give me a minute sir." replies Carter.

O'Neill walks over to her and turns her head, "Now...Carter." he says, as Carter looks out of the window she sees the water rising up, realising they don't have much time she ups her pace and starts frantically adjusting circuits and cutting and splicing wires, finally the rod glows and stays on.

"Try it now." shouts Carter.

"That's it..you got it." says Alisana, connecting to the rods and sending the data to the Daedalus, "Sent." she says.

"Bill, did you get the data?" asks Carter over the radio.

"I got it, it's recalculating now. It needs a minute." replies Bill, looking at his screen and seeing the progress bar slowly increasing.

The pressure of the water is making the cavern walls weaker and the ship starts vibrating slightly, "Bill, we need to do this now. If the ship shifts position we're screwed." says Carter.

"Come on..come on." Bill moans to his computer, it beeps to indicate its finished calculating, "Done." he shouts over the radio, and simultaneously activates the beam.

Caldwell stands and looks out of the Daedalus window, he turns to Bill, "Where are they?" he asks.

Bill looks puzzled and looks at his screen, "Err...I err...they err...they should be right there..." he says in a panicky tone.

A second later they see a powerful bright flash of light in front of them that floods in through the window and lights up the bridge of the Daedalus, as the light fades they see the Lantis floating in space in front of them, some water and a few rocks that were beamed with them float away around it.

"General O'Neill, this is the Daedalus, come in?" says Caldwell.

"This is O'Neill, looks like we have ourselves a new ship." says O'Neill, sounding cheerful.

Everyone takes breaths of relief and sit on the floor, too exhausted to do anything.

"Good work Carter." says O'Neill, "All of you...good job." he says.

"Thank you Sir." she replies.

* * *

4 hours later back at Stargate Command, SG-1, Yol and Filida are gathered at the foot of the gate ramp ready to send them home, Filida has managed to use star maps and gate addresses to locate the planet with the gate they used to get here, Yol's legs have not yet healed and as he's unable to walk he's using his psychokinetic ability to float himself in the air.

"Are you sure you can't stay, I mean at least until your fully healed." asks Daniel, standing in front of them.

"We must return to our people, they need us." says Filida.

"You know...if you tell us where your world is we can have the Daedalus swing by and see what's going on." says O'Neill, "You have no idea what you're walking in to." he says.

"I know your intentions are good, but the location of our world must remain a secret to ensure this never happens again." says Filida.

O'Neill nods, "I understand." he says.

Filida takes a step towards O'Neill, she flicks her finger asking him to bend down, when he does she kissing him on the cheek, she then does the same to everyone else, "Thank you." she says.

Yol kisses Vala, Alisana and Carter on the cheek, "Err..Woah..easy there." says Mitchell as Yol attempts to kiss him. "Handshake is just as good." says Mitchell, the guys shake Yol's hand.

"Will we ever see you again?" asks Daniel.

"No matter what happens when we return home, the Tulla will always be friends of Earth." says Filida, "I'm certain we will meet again some day." she says with a smile.

As the Stargate dials and activates, Yol and Filida start walking and hovering up the ramp, they stop when they reach the gate and turn.

"Good luck." says Carter.

"Hey Yol...you're the bravest Tulla I've ever met, you take care of her." says O'Neill.

Yol bows at O'Neill, "Always." he says.

"See you soon." says Daniel.

Yol and Filida wave and then turn and step through the Stargate, moments later it deactivates and they all just stand briefly reflecting on the days events, then they all make their way out of the gate room.

They made new friends and Earth now has another ally, as long as the war with the Umbra goes the way the Tulla planned and they successfully return home and free their people, they should see them again in the future.

Earth now also has a new ship, the Lantis, the original ship used by the Alterans to get to the Milky Way, more than a hundred scientists and engineers are now on board making repairs and discovering what it has to offer, what will they discover?, only time will tell.

* * *

O'Neill just received an urgent communication from Colonel Swanson, captain of the Alliance ship, he's in his office looking at his computer monitor answering the call.

"Hey Swanson, what's up." he asks.

Swanson looks very concerned, "Sir, we were returning from Atlantis and we dropped out of hyperspace when our sensors detecting a strange anomaly."

"..and?" asks O'Neill.

"The anomaly was detected at...Astrobaga...Sir." says Swanson, with a lump in her throat.

O'Neill leans forward with his hands clutched on his desk, he has an extremely rare look of dread on his face, "Verdain?" he asks, Swanson doesn't respond, he already knows the answer from looking at her facial expression.

**The End...**


End file.
